“What do you mean, he might be dead?”

I paced back and forth across my bedroom floor, chewing on my lip, feeling very unsettled as my mind spun around in circles.

“He might be dead, I mean, I saw him dead, but then it could have been a dream, of course, but how do you explain the eerie, sub-conscious realness of the supposed dream I’ve never experienced before? And then again, I woke up and my aunt and uncle seemed very certain it’d just been a nightmare, and I saw nothing in the attic when I got up to look, but-“

“You already looked up there?”
Luke looked at me. I nodded.

“I saw absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.”

Luke pursed his lips and got to his feet.

“Any way you could take me up there with you for a second look?”

I glanced at the door, then nodded. Aunt Beth and Uncle Todd were out at a luncheon and Eric was in the study downstairs reading a book for school.

Luke and I noiselessly ran down the hallway and rounded the corner. We opened the door and scurried up the stairs to the top of the musty attic, a few sparse cobwebs sticking to our clothes. I led Luke over to the mysterious corner near the window, which was now lit with pleasant golden sunshine.

He folded his arms and gave the area a quick glance over. I could sense the gears in his brain starting to turn and his mind beginning to warm up.

“All right, first things first: where was the body?”
I stepped over and stood where I’d remembered seeing it.

“Lay down exactly how you remember the body on the floor.”

I blinked and then did as he wished, the picture in my head of the night before becoming clearer as he directed me to close my eyes and assisted me step-by-step in re-creating the murder scene. I remembered a stab wound directly to the chest, but since blood was coming several other locations, we determined there were a total of seven stab wounds- one to the chest, one to the leg, two to the stomach, one to the arm, one to the groin and one to the shoulder. Luke wrinkled his forehead and tapped his chin.

“Overkill.”

He stated this quite matter-of-factly, then continued.
“”Overkill. Whoever killed Jayson did it in rage, whether he began with self-control or not, it ended in a frenzied fit of rage. He was mad at him…”

Luke squatted and touched the floor where I’d seen the body with his fingertips.

“…It was personal. It wasn’t the same person that’d killed your family, but it was definitely connected. Two killers.”

Luke stood and began looking around. I played with my necklace and nervously looked at him. He was speaking as if my brother really had been murdered, as if he was already sure it wasn’t a dream.

“No blood. No obvious evidence. He cleaned up after himself. Probably a person who normally portrays a calm composure, but is angered easily. He got angry once he got into the kill, then after the job was done, he realized his deed and calmed down. He recognized the danger of getting caught and the urgency of covering up his work as soon and thoroughly as possible, and he cleaned up his mess very quickly.”

Luke jerked his head back and looked at the spot the body had been laying in once more. He frowned and got down on his knees, putting his nose close to the wood floor and sniffed loudly.

“Lemon.”

My eyes widened and I staggered back a step.

“Lucile uses a cleaner for the kitchen floor that smells like lemon!”

Luke got to his feet and began searching the surrounding space without a word. I, unfortunately, could not sustain such a calmness. My heart began racing and my mind spinning even faster, I grabbed the chaise behind me to steady myself. Luke glanced over his shoulder at me, then turned around.

“Cora, calm down.”

I shook my head, eyes wide, unable to feel or say anything. I knew it. Jayson was really dead.

“He’s dead.”

I hoarsely whispered, the sound coming out of my dry lips empty and numb. I helplessly stared at Luke with desperately wide eyes.

“Here, Cora, help me look around.”

Luke motioned with his hands around the chaise.

“Look near here, you might find something.”

He patted my back reassuringly and resumed his search. I numbly kneeled to the ground and fished around under the chaise, extending my arm underneath it and sweeping back and forth, feeling the cool floor with my hand. I almost stopped looking under the chaise, when my hand felt something like cold metal. I halted and fearfully paused, then drew it out from under the chaise. I audibly gasped at what I was holding in my hand- a knife with an engraved handle sporting the initials, “T.C”.

“L-Luke!”

Luke strode over and silently looked at what was in my hand.

“Which direction did whoever grab you come from?”

I tearfully pointed towards the chaise. Luke climbed over it and looked around, then he worked his way to the stairs and looked towards where he’d just been.

“Anyone behind it would be hidden from view.”

He stood back at my side and opened his mouth to speak, when suddenly, the attic door at the bottom of the staircase squeaked open. I hissed at Luke to hide, pointing at the wardrobe in the corner, then turned to see someone appear at the top of the stairs just as Luke got behind the piece of furniture.

“C-Cora! What are you doing up here?”

I cleared my throat as I saw the visitor to be Eric, then locked my hands behind my back, the knife firmly in their grip. He looked at me, my gaze meeting his nervously but unfalteringly.

“I just, y’know, um, wanted to reassure myself it was all…just a n-nightmare…”

Working his way over the junk, he stood in front of me, and I felt with chills rushing down my spine that he glanced at the chaise. He looked at the floor behind me, then touched my cheek lightly with his cold fingertips. His eyes stared straight into mine, seeming to burn right through me, seeming to stare into my soul. He knew why I was up here.

I shifted the knife in my sweaty, sticky hands, then caught a scream in my throat as it crashed to the floor, the sound seeming to me as loud as an earthquake.
Eric flinched and his eyes locked on to the weapon that was laying on the floor behind my back. He slowly stooped down, hidden from my view behind me. I instinctively tightened up, shutting my eyes tightly as I heard him pick up the knife in his hand.

I opened my eyes to see his face inches from mine, eyes looking straight into my own. Goosebumps popped up on my arms as his lips slowly moved, forming what were to me words spoken like a freezing midnight wind.

“Tsk, tsk. Cora, Cora. Stop being so curious, and take things for what they are. Prying into affairs that are none of your business only causes you trouble.”

I gulped, my heart seeming to be caught in my throat as I watched him run his fingers across the blade. He turned his back to me and paused, then wordlessly made his way back to the staircase, disappearing as he descended and exiting the attic with a long, echoing squeak of the rusty hinged door below.